Side Effect Central

I know some are wondering how Nate is doing on his new seizure medication. Um, not well. We haven't even started a "therapeutic" dose yet, and we're seeing major side effects. They told us to look out for tireness, moodiness, and him falling down more. Check, check, and check.

Exhibit A: Tuesday at aquatic therapy, Nate did exactly the opposite of everything Becky said. At one point, she said, "He's a little devil today, isn't he?" :)

Exhibit B: Again at PT yesterday, Becky said, "Um, he's talking out of his head."

Exhibit C: The other day in the car, Nate started screaming. I finally determined he was crying, "I want to yawn!!!" Um, okay, Nate, go ahead and yawn. Tantrum over. Wow.

Exhibit D: This morning, I saw him muttering, "Poor Nate, poor Nate, poor Nate..." and later said, "It's a very yawn day."

Seriously, he's a mess. And it's only going to get worse (when we increase his dose tomorrow) before it gets better. I'm still hopeful that the side effects will decrease after a few weeks, but only time will tell. That time is going to be pretty miserable though.

Speaking of side effects to medication, I'm having my own. Back in the fall, I went to my doctor about my frequent migraines. I'm convinced I'm having migraines because of hormones associated with nursing. But because I'm nursing, my doctor was limited in the medications she could give me for migraines. She said it's been proven that anti-depressants have an unintended side effect of decreasing headaches. So she prescribed zoloft, and after a few weeks of it not really working, she increased my dosage. Well, it has helped quite a bit with the headaches. I still have very frequent headaches, but they are more tension headaches than migraines. However, in the past couple of weeks, I've realized that I'm having just about every possible side effect associated with zoloft. I've been wondering why I don't feel like myself--I'm apathetic, restless, and just vaguely sad a lot of the time. I also get major hot flashes and my hands sometimes shake, and I'm VERY forgetful. Last week, I FORGOT to take Nate to PT ... TWICE. That has never, ever, EVER happened. This morning, I took the kids to music class .... an hour late. It was over.

So I'm slowly weaning myself off zoloft according to my doctor's directions. In the meantime, I'm feeling a little depressed and very spacey. I can't wait to feel like myself again. And since I'm still taking Excedrin Migraine for tension headaches at least 3 times a week anyway, I don't think the headaches will get that much worse. I'll probably just have to deal with headaches until I'm done with breastfeeding, which will probably be around 12 months (5 more months). At this point, the benefits still outweigh the downsides.

So Nate and I are not exactly at our finest, and Georgia is teething, and Blake is having a stressful week. We can barely stand each other, haha, but we're just trying to be as kind and forgiving to each other as possible. That's what family is for--to be there even in the rough patches.

I do have some good news though. Even with all that's going on, Nate has had some very promising potty success the past week!!!! This is really exciting. In fact, he's poopied in the potty pretty much every time in the last week. We still have a ways to go, but I'm very hopeful. Oh, and the reason he's now interested in the potty is that I'm bribing him with cookies. Hey, whatever works.